Friends

Tag: Marla

Book Title: Allegiance, book two of the Betrothed series
Author: Wanda Wiltshire
Publisher: Pantera Press
Genre: Young Adult/Fae
Release Date: July 1st, 2014
Book Synopsis: The second book in the Betrothed Series.

Having returned home, Marla seems to quickly forget her Faery Prince, Leif… And strangely, she starts seeing her best friend Jack in a different way…

Tensions mount within this doomed love triangle after Leif, unwilling to part with his betrothed, strikes a deal with his father, the fiery King Telophy, to travel to Earth to win Marla back.

Meanwhile in the enchanting land of Faera, more and more of King Telophy’s subjects are vanishing – victims of a shadowy presence.

Leif flies back to to Faera, with Marla and Jack to help vanquish this deadly threat.

Shifting shadows, bonds of blood, and with their lives in danger … Marla is conflicted, relying on both Leif and Jack for support.

But who will she choose?

And can the three save Faera in time?

~*~

This book, thankfully, picked up where the first book ended on it’s awful yet keeps you coming back for more, cliff-hanger ending that we love and hate all at the same time. Through a trick of Lief’s magic, Marla/Amy, is seemingly released from being his betrothed, and she begins a relationship with Jack, though doesn’t stop searching for her twin, Lysander, whom she found out about at the end of Betrothed, and nor do her grandparents. The mystery of what happened to her parents remains, perhaps a good thing, to keep readers wanting to know more. Yet trouble brews in more ways than one. Lief returns to claim Marla/Amy back as his betrothed, and there is trouble brewing in Faera from the Shadow Fae, kidnapping Fae and feeding off of the sunlight in their blood, searching for Lysander, and trying to get him back into Faera, his true home.
Full of twists and turns that deal quite well with the issue of the Shadow Fae, it is Marla’s attack that only hardens Lief’s resolve to find a way to vanquish these creatures…with Jack’s help, something that works and allows Lief and his father to begin to gain the upper hand. The introduction of this subplot did not detract in anyway from the main plot of Marla and Lief, and self discovery, love of all kinds, of family and friendship and Marla’s desires to help Lysander. If anything, it enriched the plot and series, giving readers something more. A threat that they could fear – a powerful emotion felt by those in the book against these creatures. I enjoyed the darker side to the book, perhaps a little more than the romance, however, that was lovely too, and done very well. Marla’s conflict of disgust and of awe of Telophy after the allegiance ceremony was beautifully portrayed, and, I imagine, exactly as one might feel when confronted with such feelings over a character or person that is despicable but also has vulnerabilities that do not always reveal themselves to people.
This book is an easy read, though perhaps one that went too quickly for me and almost made me miss my train stop – as many of the books I am reading at the moment are capable of doing. This is a good thing, because I love any book that can take me into a place completely away from where I am and that has the potential for ultimate travel distraction. This book is a good read for anyone after a good fantasy romance with a little more zing to it.